1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to reproduction of motion picture media, and more particularly, to an apparatus for and method of handling a failure in reading motion picture data from a storage medium and reproducing the same, in which discontinuance in reproducing the motion picture data of the storage medium can be prevented.
2. Description of the Related Art
When a conventional apparatus for reproducing a storage medium like a disc encounters a damaged area on the disc, since the damaged area may cause a failure in reading the disc, the apparatus tries to read data from the damaged area several times. If the apparatus fails to read the damaged area, abandons reproduction of the disc.
FIG. 1 is a flowchart illustrating a method of handling a failure in reading a disc, which is performed by the conventional apparatus for reproducing the disc. In operation 100, the apparatus (not shown) for reproducing a disc reads data from the disc and transmits the data to a host device (not shown), such as a computer with a motion picture player, to reproduce and display motion picture data. When the apparatus meets a scratch on the disc, it may fail to read data around the scratch. If the apparatus fails to read data around the scratch on the disc in operation 110, the apparatus jumps a prescribed number of addresses from where the reading failure occurs and reads data at the address arrived at by jumping (operation 120).
If the apparatus again fails to read data at the address arrived at by jumping in operation 130, in the apparatus checks whether a predetermined time has been passed (time-out) in operation 140. Operations 120 through 140 are repeated until data at the address arrived at by jumping is successfully read by the apparatus or there is a time-out. Such repetition is performed at the same address arrived at by jumping first.
If data is successfully read out from the address arrived at by jumping, the apparatus transmits the data to the host device to be displayed in operation 150. If data at the address arrived at by jumping fails to be read before the time-out, the apparatus stops reproducing the disc and sends an error message to the host device in operation 160. The host device stops playing motion pictures from data of the disc when the error message is sent.
As described above, in a conventional apparatus for and method of handling a failure in reading and reproducing a disc having a non-recoverable scratch, when the apparatus fails to read data around the scratch on the disc, it jumps a prescribed number of addresses from where the reading failure occurs, and tries to read data from the address arrived at by jumping within a predetermined time. If the apparatus again fails to read data from the address arrived at by jumping within the predetermined time, it abandons reproduction of the disc.
Storage media having motion picture data need to be continuously reproduced rather than to make precise error correction. For example, when a storage medium having movie contents has a scratch thereon, a viewer would prefer the movie contents from the storage medium to be continuously displayed even though a part of the movie contents around the scratch is lost, rather than to be completely stopped. Accordingly, there is a need to distinguish storage media having motion picture data from storage media having no motion picture data and to continuously reproduce the motion picture data on the storage media.